The Brands American Men And Women Desire Most

Jacquelyn Smith
,
Forbes Staff
If it has to do with leadership, jobs, or careers, I'm on it.

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Previous studies have used neuromarketing to probe consumers' relationships with brands, but Buyology claims this one is the first to do so by tapping into both the conscious and nonconscious brain. The firm's researchers say that 85% of the decisions we make every day occur on a nonconscious level.

“There is universal agreement that the majority of decisions we make as humans, beyond our decisions about what to buy, is steeped in our non-conscious; emotions, instinct, intuition, memories and personal experiences,” Singer says.

Buyology and uSamp identified and evaluated consumers' relationships with brands using four key parameters, or "primers." These "neurotypes"--awe, superiority, harmony and exploration--were paired to give a total of 16 possible combinations. All of the brands studied, 220 in all, were also matched with a numerical "signal strength" to determine consumers' connection to them. The research was conducted from February 6-10, 2012, and drew on data from more than 4,000 consumers.

“Neuro-insight has become one of the hottest areas for a reason,” Singer says. “Nine out of 10 new products fail, which shows that consumer research needs to change, and this is now possible because science has given us the tools to more deeply understand consumer behavior.”

The Buyology and uSamp research yielded some surprising findings.
Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance, is No. 5 among men, with a harmony-harmony combination. Meanwhile, Lexus elicits a superiority-superiority connection for women, and ranks No. 9.

Men love Bed, Bath & Beyond because it's full of fun gizmos, Singer says. The easy–to-navigate layout and clearly labeled departments also appeals to them. “If you think of Bed, Bath & Beyond as a home store, you might be surprised that it’s so highly rated among men, but we believe that men love this brand because it offers them a highly organized retail environment and cool tools.”

As for Lexus, Singer says, “The brand is smart, accomplished, elegant, innovative and brilliantly engineered and marketed. Women know what they want and Lexus clearly delivers.”

Men find automakers desirable, too. Cadillac and BMW hold the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. “Cars have mattered to men as long as they’ve been around,” Singer explains.

“Successful car brands have capitalized on what they represent to men; freedom, control, status, and power. What’s not surprising is that there are two auto brands on men’s list and women have only one.”

Consumers have relationships with brands, and the value of the relationships is that they provide context that either amplifies or diminishes everything, Singer says. “Think about it this way: If you have a really strong relationship with a technology brand, you are going to pay attention when they introduce new products. Everything they do, you see through a particular lens. Relationships literally change business.”